The Public Editor

What Belongs on the Front Page of The New York Times

By JACK ROSENTHAL

Published: August 22, 2004

THE Good Gray Times: it surely was that. Black and white for certain; read all over, maybe. For decades, the front page of The Times each day packed 12 articles into eight narrow columns of type, relieved only by occasional photographs and maps. Page 1 in 1900 had nearly 10,000 words of text; in the 1950's, about 4,500.

How times - and the face of The Times - have changed. Page 1 today typically contains six articles, with about 2,200 words of text, arrayed in an artful vertical and horizontal mix, with three or four color illustrations and a box promoting five or six articles inside.

Page 1 has also steadily changed in another substantial way: content. The Times has long prided itself on its coverage of geopolitics, whether foreign turmoil, Washington infighting or city politics. But in recent years, front-page subject matter has expanded widely, reflecting rising interest in topics like finance, family, technology, medicine and space. The front page likewise reflects the paper's interest in livelier writing. Radio and television have turned spoken, informal English into Americans' dominant language and The Times, famously scrupulous about keeping language proper, has become equally concerned with making it accessible.

The Times has done less well in adapting to other concerns of readers. They ask why, for instance, does a paper that made much of Whitewater, a real estate deal that occurred before Bill Clinton's presidency, now fail to give Page 1 prominence to the financial improprieties at Halliburton under Dick Cheney? Why does The Times put so many articles about Abu Ghraib on Page 1? Why a feature on young Japanese-Americans rather than real news about the failings of federal gun control?

Such questions often reflect the asker's politics, geography or age. In any case, it is reckless to second-guess the choice of one article over another for Page 1 without at least knowing at what hour a particular article developed and how it compared in importance with other news of that day.

Dan Okrent's appointment as the first public editor offers a way for readers with such concerns to make themselves heard. He has appraised Page 1 news judgments before and I'd be surprised if he does not do so again. An appraisal is also in order of the Page 1 process, including its shortcomings. Two notable ones are navigation and explanation.

The very comprehensiveness of The Times's coverage often makes readers - and some editors - long for a compass to direct them across acres of newsprint. And in this all-news-all-the-time environment, when many readers already know what happened before they pick up the paper, their need is for help in understanding it.

What Page 1 Does

The Times's front page performs several traditional functions. At a glance it gives readers a summary of the most important events of the day, in obvious order of importance, in comparison with other days. On big news days, the editors are always ready to break out big headlines (MEN WALK ON MOON; U.S. ATTACKED). On a routine day, the lead story will appear on the far right under a single-column headline. That tells the reader this is the strongest article the editors have to offer today, and they see no reason to hype it with a bigger headline. These are judgments that hundreds of editors and news directors around the country receive in nightly reports of The Times's "frontings."

On big news days, the choices are pretty obvious. It's slow days that test the depth of The Times and other quality media. All-news channels and stations are not known for exhaustive reporting of old governmental wrongs or new social rites. The Times's front page last Monday, a slow day, included exclusive articles of both kinds, one reporting that the F.B.I. has been questioning political demonstrators, and one registering a turn in teenage fashion from punk to preppy.

Page 1, like The Times, reflects the interests of a readership that is better educated, more curious and more dispersed. Women, for example, were once catered to - patronized, one might say today - inside The Times with the Four F's, a daily page titled food, fashion, family and furnishings. Now, topics like diet, divorce and retail rivalries regularly win front-page attention.

Who Decides What Goes Where

Promptly at noon and again at 4:30, about 18 editors gather around a long oval table to hear what each of the major departments recommends for Page 1 the next morning. The executive editor and managing editors encourage discussion. When there's not much going on, every editor remembers the unspoken first law of journalism: big news or no news, you gotta run something.

Especially on slow days, heads of the various departments at The Times look for the opportunity to present original reports. These may disclose a new aspect of a continuing story, like the federal investigation into who leaked the name of Valerie Plame of the C.I.A. to a Washington columnist. Or they may present new reporting like The Times's July series, "Death on the Tracks," on scores of preventable deaths at railroad crossings. Or editors may consider what they call "the mix" and put on Page 1 a story of only passing consequence but of interest to a diversifying audience. An example that irritated older readers is the recent report that the cool look for younger men is to wear their shirttails out of their pants.